Wilted Greens Salad

Ever try cooked lettuce?

Wilted lettuce salad is fast and fun when you have a lot of greens to eat-up and empty the fridge for more. The soft, cool lettuce, hot crisp bacon and tangy-sweet dressing all come together in a veritable explosion of different but complementary textures and flavors. Making wilted lettuce salad is simple and takes very little time.

Too Much Kale left over?

Add it to the recipe below when cooking the bacon and then toss it with the salad after it cooks for a few minutes and drain well on paper towels with the bacon.

Wilted Greens Salad

 adapted from Taste of Home, Alberta McKay, Bartlesville , OK

Ingredients:

• 4 cups lettuce, washed, dried and torn 
• (optional - 1 cup kale leaves removed from rib) 
• 4 to 6 green onions, sliced 
• Cracked pepper 
• Coarse salt 
• 4 bacon slices 
• 1 1/2 tsp. vinegar 
• 1 tsp. lemon juice 
• ¼ tsp. sugar 
• 1 hardboiled egg - chopped 

 Preparation:

Put lettuce and chopped onion into a large bowl and toss them well. Sprinkle a generous amount of cracked pepper and a smaller amount of coarse salt over the lettuce and green onions and toss them again. Add chopped hard boiled egg.

Place 4 bacon slices into a frying pan and fry them over medium heat until they are crisp and completely cooked through. Put the cooked bacon onto a paper-towel-lined plate to drain. (Now is the time to add and cook kale and drain it too on paper towels)

Turn the heat up under the bacon drippings until they start to sizzle. Add the vinegar, lemon juice and sugar and stir with a wooden spoon until all of the sugar is dissolved.

Crumble the bacon into the frying pan and stir, this is your hot dressing; then pour the hot dressing over the cool lettuce, onions, eggs (and optional slightly cooled fried kale), toss well, and serve.